Cloud, social media continue to top ICT trends

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

Christopher Papa, country manager of Dell Philippines, at a recent briefing held in Bonifacio Global City

MANILA -- Dell Philippines recently identified five themes which the company believes will dominate the information communications technology (ICT) sector in 2014.

These trends are: One Cloud Does Not Fit All, Choose Your Own Device (CYOD), Moving Beyond Transactions to Digital Relationships with Social Media, Big Data Analytics Gets Simpler and Deploy Security at the Core of Business Strategy.

“These themes will become even more relevant in 2014 as we encounter further impact from cloud computing, CYOD, social media, big data analytics and security,” Christopher Papa, country manager of Dell Philippines, said in a recent briefing held in Bonifacio Global City.

Papa said many organizations will realize this year that migrating to the cloud will require a different strategy and roadmap, adding that enterprises will develop more interest on the type of cloud they will deploy as well as how to ensure there is adequate security of data moving in and out of the cloud.

In the past, Papa said majority of the organizations jumped on the cloud computing bandwagon without considering the company size or nature of the business.

“However, cloud computing has reached an inflection point, and as Forrester predicts in its Cloud Computing Playbook, enterprises today recognize that they need a comprehensive strategy before partaking in the cloud,” he said.

Papa said Dell also sees a growing number of businesses this year to explore the implementation of CYOD as a reaction to the challenges posed by the bring your own device (BYOD) model.

“Chief information officers (CIOs) continue to fret over the loss of control over devices, and worry about allowing corporate networks to become vulnerable to employees’ personal data, viruses, apps, open ports and cloud services,” Papa said.

Under the CYOD model, Papa said organizations will offer their employees a choice of a company-approved device with the appropriate security and standardization. “With CYOD, CIOs can easily manage the deployment of multiple device options with the right security configurations,” he said.

Papa said social media will play a more prominent role in digital transactions because it will enable organizations to understand, connect and deliver to their target audience in more relevant and personalized ways.

“This real-time strategy is gaining popularity, especially since customers often have the best ideas and insights, being the end-users of various products and services,” he said.

Further, Papa said social media will continue to become more than a tool for companies in 2014 as it will become an extension of any brand and their relationships with their customers.

In 2014, Papa said there will be big business opportunities in analyzing big data as converting data will be more challenging to other companies as not all of them are ready to invest in hardware and developing in-house skills to build and maintain a complex big data analytics infrastructure.

Papa said Dell sees more organizations implementing a holistic strategy focused on connecting security to the infrastructure, information and applications that are critical to the organization.

In this age of increasing risk, Papa said cannot afford to place security as just a component of its IT strategy. Instead, he said they have to learn that security is very much the business strategy in 2014.

“The aim is to protect data wherever it resides – on the network, in the cloud, or on mobile devices,” he said.